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Indian languages: influence on Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| Alfonso Octoglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 6861 days ago 511 posts - 536 votes  Speaks: Biblical Hebrew, Spanish*, French, English, Tzotzil, Italian, Portuguese, Ancient Greek Studies: Nahuatl, Tzeltal, German | Message 1 of 8 03 April 2006 at 11:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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The Spanish language (and not only Spanish) has enriched his lexicon ever since has been in contact with native languages spoken here in America before the European conquerors arrived.
For example, there are some Nahuatl (or Aztec) words that now belong to the international Spanish lexicon and they are even used in English and other languages like tomatl (tomato), coyotl (coyote), chocolatl (chocolate), petatl(petate) There is an interesting word tizatl (piece of chalk) from Aztec origin that is now used in Spain as tiza but it's seldom used in Mexico itself. Here in Mexico we use most comonly the word gis. This word supposedly comes from the Latin gesum (according to my Latin teacher but I haven't found it on the dictionary though). If so, we use now in Mexico the Latin word for chalk meanwhile in Spain people use tiza from Mexican origin. Weird! doesn't it? Edited by Alfonso on 22 September 2006 at 9:45am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JackFrost Diglot Newbie Canada Joined 6808 days ago 17 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Swedish, Icelandic | Message 2 of 8 05 April 2006 at 11:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's not really weird. It even happened to English, Portuguese, and French. When colonists came to the New World, and they saw a lot of things that don't exist in the Old World, so they usually try to listen how the natives called them, and then use these words as part of their language.
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| leesean Pentaglot Newbie United States lshuang.wordpress.co Joined 6738 days ago 10 posts - 10 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English*, Spanish, Japanese, French | Message 3 of 8 07 July 2006 at 12:00am | IP Logged | ||
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I say "tiza" for "chalk" in Spanish (I studied in Barcelona). I have never heard
the word "gis", but it sounds similar to the Catalan word for "chalk" which is "guix" (pronounced like "geesh") Another example would be the Mexican Spanish word "guajolote" that means "turkey" (the bird) which is "pavo" in standard Spanish. Edited by leesean on 07 July 2006 at 12:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Alfonso Octoglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 6861 days ago 511 posts - 536 votes Speaks: Biblical Hebrew, Spanish*, French, English, Tzotzil, Italian, Portuguese, Ancient Greek Studies: Nahuatl, Tzeltal, German | Message 4 of 8 07 July 2006 at 1:47pm | IP Logged | ||
Yes, it is. Guajolote is the Nahuatl word for turkey. It's kind of curious. When it's prepared in a elegant way (high cuisine) we usually say "pavo". When prepared in an ordinary way, we say "guajolote". Here in Mexico, "pavo" is the elegant way to say turkey. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Alas Oscuras Diglot Newbie Mexico Joined 6860 days ago 38 posts - 38 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: French, Japanese | Message 5 of 8 09 July 2006 at 12:53am | IP Logged | ||
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My own experience with "guajolote" has been slightly different. I've
heard that people refer to it as "pavo" when it is prepared in any way, cooked, ham, whatever. But the living animal is named "guajolote", before being full of spices and on a table. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Frisco Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6856 days ago 380 posts - 398 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Italian, Turkish, Mandarin | Message 6 of 8 09 July 2006 at 1:15am | IP Logged | ||
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What about the word "tecolote"? Is it used more or less than "búho" or "lechuza"? Maybe for a certain type of owl?
Would "-lote" be the root for "bird"? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Alas Oscuras Diglot Newbie Mexico Joined 6860 days ago 38 posts - 38 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: French, Japanese | Message 7 of 8 09 July 2006 at 12:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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Again, after my particular experience, "tecolote" is a kind of tiny owl;
yes, a specific species. Now, I'm pretty sure "-lote" derives from "lotl"; so probably it was said "tecolotl" long ago, but I don't think its ending is a root, but rather a suffix, as Náhuatl is an aglutinative language -at least I think that's how they're called-, very much in the way of German. Maybe Alfonso could explain this better, right Alfonso? . . . . . . . Alfonso!? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Alfonso Octoglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 6861 days ago 511 posts - 536 votes Speaks: Biblical Hebrew, Spanish*, French, English, Tzotzil, Italian, Portuguese, Ancient Greek Studies: Nahuatl, Tzeltal, German | Message 8 of 8 09 July 2006 at 5:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi, Alas Oscuras! Your're right! Nahuatl is an agglutinative language like German.
Besides that, "Tecolotl" (owl) is the Nahuatl word for "Tecolote" in Spanish. As far as I know, I'm not sure whether tecolote, guajolote (turkey) or even ocelote (ocelot, a kind of wildcat - felis pardalis according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary) have the common root or sufix -olote. The reason is that there are in Nahuatl many words ending in -olotl like olotl ("olote" in Spanish, it means corncob or ear of corn without kernels), molotl ("molote" in Spanish, it's a traditional food, mainly in the Mexican State of Oaxaca, made of corn with beans inside), colotl (a sort of knitted basket made of dried palm leaves), yolotl (which means "heart"), etc. Notice that these names aren't actually for animals. So I think that the ending -olote is quite common to find among Nahuatl words. After all, there are languages which have many words with similar endings (cfr. the English ending "ough" like in the words: enough, lough, though, although, tough, dough, rough, hough, etc.). Anyway I should ask one of my Nahuatl teachers in order to find out more information about this question. :) Edited by Alfonso on 09 July 2006 at 6:29pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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